Unilever boss insists he would not want responsibility of having to turn around Tesco

The boss of Unilever insists he would not want the responsibility of having to turn around Tesco, which has poached one of his most senior executives as chief executive.

Paul Polman used a disappointing half-year update to pay tribute to Unilever lifer Dave Lewis, who will start at Britain’s biggest retailer in October.

The challenges Polman faced in turning around Unilever were very different from those hurting Tesco and he said he would not feel qualified to run the chain because his experience was with building brands rather than retail.

Cool: Magnum, which celebrated its 25th birthday this year, is one of the world's top selling ice-creams

Speaking
for the first time since losing Lewis, who ran the firm’s personal care
arm in charge of Dove and Lynx, Polman said: ‘It’s never easy if you
become the chief executive, and he has a big challenge.

‘He
is out here alone and it’s a very high amount of responsibility given
to him. Dave is well prepared but it’s not an easy job.’

While
giving the former Unilever graduate trainee his vote of confidence the
comments about challenges facing Tesco from one of the world’s biggest
consumer good giants will concern investors.

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‘Dave
has been a good guy and has made a great contribution over his career
and we’re sorry to see him go. We are good friends so I talk a lot with
him so I offered him my time to be a successful chief executive but the
advice I gave him, I will leave that for now between him and me.

‘If
you can help each other become more successful chief executives then I
think that is a good thing it’s in all of our interests that he does
well.’ Tesco (down again, 1.2p at 274.8p) is a key Unilever customer,
selling products including Persil, Marmite, Lipton tea and Magnum, which
is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

But
Unilever, down 20p to 2663p, has problems of its own. The Anglo-Dutch
firm cited poor trading in emerging markets and price wars in developed
regions for missing second-quarter sales forecasts.

Underlying sales fell 3.8 per cent, short of the 4.3 per cent analyst had expected.

Currency
issues with the strong pound and negative foreign exchange rates worked
against it, as did a slowdown in Asia and Russia. Polman said: ‘Our
markets have been challenging and we have experienced a further
slow-down in the emerging countries, whilst developed markets are not
yet picking up.’

Turmoil
in Israel and Ukraine has affected the business in a small way, which
Polman said he ‘hates to call this business as usual but that’s how the
world functions now and we have to be agile’.

A raft of innovations helped lift half year pre-tax profit to £3.3bn from £2.8bn on sales of £19bn.

It
has developed Ben & Jerry’s cores – tubs of ice-cream with a soft
centre – compressed deodorants in Europe and a new toothpaste which
helps restore enamel.

Polman
said that the recent spate of disposals – it ditched non-core food
brands Slim-Fast, Ragu, Pepperoni and Skippy – had come to an end and
the business was now focused on the remainder.

He
also said around 2 per cent of sales are lost to the discounters as
shoppers mistake Unilever brands for their copycat versions.

‘It happens here right in our back yard but we are on to it and taking action to protect our brands.’